The El Niño effect has delayed soybean planting in Brazil’s Midwest, the region that concentrates soy production in the country, potentially reducing the window for second-crop corn planting. This is expected to further focus on road freight demand, leading to increased transportation costs. According to the Research and Extension Group in Agroindustrial Logistics at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (EsalqLog), road freight prices at the beginning of next year are projected to be 15% to 20% higher than those in the same period of 2023. With the harvest delay, transportation costs are expected to peak between late February and early March rather than the usual early February timeframe. “This will obviously depend on the region, but there will be a greater concentration of trucks leaving the farms during this period,” says Fernando Bastiani, one of the coordinators of the EsalqLog survey.
Sources: Globo Rural/Datamar News